Autobiography ex colored man chapter summary

Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is told from the first-person point of view of an unnamed male narrator. He starts his tale by stating that he is going to reveal the great secret of his life.

He first takes the reader to his childhood in Georgia where he was raised by a single mother.

Autobiography ex colored man chapter summary

His father occasionally visits, but one day when the narrator is very young, he and his mother move to Connecticut. The narrator is a very intelligent young man and soon proves himself a musical prodigy. He enters a public school and becomes close friends with an older and bigger white boy who he nicknames "Red".

He is intrigued by the African American students at his school - in particular, an exceptionally bright and ambitious boy who goes by the nickname "Shiny".

One day the principal comes into the narrator's classroom and asks all of the white children to stand.

When the narrator stands, the principal asks him to sit down. Through this traumatic incident, the narrator